BRAND EQUITY Brands are intangible and conditional assets that are dependent on tangible assets to deliver the full value of their benefits. Of course partial value may be realized without material assets through licensing. Brand Equity on the other hand, as defined by Marketing Science, is ‘the set of associations and behavior on the part of a brand’s customers, channel members and parent corporation that permits the brand to earn greater volume or greater margins than it could without the brandname'. Broadly speaking, Brand Equity is the intrinsic value customers attribute to a brand, beyond its fair market value. This metric can be calculated in several ways, especially between the disciplines of Marketing and Finance. In Finance, this metric is an intangible portion of Firm value that is typically valued during times of acquisitions/divestitures. For publicly traded firms, financial Brand Equity can be measured as the difference between Market Value of the firm (total outstanding share multiplied by share price).  On the other hand Marketing Brand Equity is measured as a weighted function of several constructs:  Brand Awareness: Brand Awareness can be measured by customer ability to recall brand related features or advertising, either aided or unaided.  Brand Resilience: This is the Brand’s ability to resist new competitors in the category by defending market share against market entrants.  Brand Premium: Brand Premium is the extent to which customers will pay a premium for your product when compared to similar competing products. This can be negative if the product needs to be offered at a discount to competitors to induce purchase.  Brand Leverage: One dimension of Brand Equity is the trust customers put in the Brand by their willingness to try new products or line extensions under the brand name. Extensive usage of Brand Leverage could result in Brand Dilution, especially if the new products or line extensions fall below customer expectations. Market Leverage: Market leverage of a brand is its ability to gain market access via distribution channels.  Brand Equity can be considered as a weighted average of each of these metrics. Weights for each Brand Equity can be derived from expert judgment or by quantitative methods, for example by regressing long-term market-share time-series (approximated by moving average estimates) against time-series of each of these metrics collected from a sufficiently large and random sample of respondents. Brand Valuation Brand value is as important an aspect of a firm's value as the value of it's tangible assets and cash-flows. Brand value has several different dimensions and components. Brand Assets are indirect drivers of brand value because they help maintain the brand's competitive position, premium and consumer perception, which in turn help the brand drive excess cash-flow over and above what the tangible assets and services of the firm would be expected to generate. "For the long-term health of the brand, it is as important to evaluate how Marketing drives Brand Equity, as it is to determine how Marketing drives Sales"